Sometimes when a person challenges a no contest clause and loses the challenge, courts will refuse to enforce the clause. Sometimes when a person challenges a no contest clause and wins the challenge, the court will enforce the clause anyway.

The difference between the two extremes is a matter of individual state law and what exactly is being challenged.

There are different rules in every state.

An estate planning attorney can advise you on wisdom of filing a challenge and the potential outcomes.

12/17/2018

MarketWatch recently discussed in "How to prepare for the death of your spouse," that when you know ahead of time that your ill or elderly spouse is going to pass away, there are some preparations that you can make.

Among the preparations that can make things easier are:

Gather up all important legal and financial documents. This includes Social Security information, marriage licenses, retirement account information and anything similar. If your spouse has an estate plan, then also locate it. The important thing is to make sure you know where everything is and can access it quickly when needed.

If possible and if you have not previously done so, talk to your spouse about his or her wishes and instructions for what should be done after death. Knowing what your spouse's burial wishes are, for example, means that you do not have to come up with a plan for them on your own.

If your spouse has an estate attorney, talk to the attorney. Let the attorney know the situation so he or she can prepare and assist you in making the appropriate legal preparations.

Making sure that someone in the family has access to the home of the deceased. A walk through of the home should be done to make sure that anything of value is secure and to look for all financial and legal documents.

Closing all financial accounts. Make sure that banks and credit card companies know someone has passed away. Provide them with any documentation they need to put holds on the accounts. If no one will be living in the home, make sure unnecessary services, such as cable and phone, are stopped.

If you are going to be the executor of the estate, get a general idea of the estate's finances by looking at any tax documents and financial statements.

Meeting with an accountant and an estate attorney to learn what you need to do and consider whether you need to hire them to assist you.

Talking to other family members to try and reach agreements about how the estate should be handled and by whom. This will help avoid fights later.

Sometimes when a person challenges a no contest clause and loses the challenge, courts will refuse to enforce the clause. Sometimes when a person challenges a no contest clause and wins the challenge, the court will enforce the clause anyway.

The difference between the two extremes is a matter of individual state law and what exactly is being challenged.

There are different rules in every state.

An estate planning attorney can advise you on wisdom of filing a challenge and the potential outcomes.

04/03/2017

The article covers the move from California to Nederland, CO in 1993 of a mother and son, who planned to open a cryonic facility. The town didn’t know that they were bringing with them the frozen body of Bredo Morstoel, who many years earlier had been frozen in liquid nitrogen.

This was discovered when the wife went into the town to fight an eviction. While his wife and a grandson have since been deported on visa violations, they still pay a caretaker to haul 2,400 pounds of dry ice every month to preserve Morstoel's frozen body.

If this story was not already strange enough, the town has an annual festival to celebrate its unique body called Frozen Dead Guy Days. The festival includes a coffin race, costume ball and a feast.

It is not known what the town might do, if Morstoel's family no longer provides funds to preserve his body.

While this particular story is strange, cryogenics is becoming an increasingly popular method of postmortem disposition of human remains. Many people believe that if they have their bodies frozen, doctors will be able to unfreeze them and cure whatever disease killed them.